Sepp Kuss completely evaporates from the battle for victory on Alto da Fóia: "I just didn't have the legs"
Cycling
On the final climb of stage 2 of the Volta ao Algarve, to the top of Fóia, one of the men who wasn't in the lead group was Team Visma | Lease a Bike's climber Sepp Kuss.
In a stage divided into two parts, it was in the second, the toughest, that we saw Visma together with Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe take the reins of the peloton in an attempt to whittle down the advantage of a group of escapees. Once done, the battle for ideal positions to enter the penultimate climb of the day escalated and put some of the candidates for the stage win and the general classification through difficulties. This included the American rider.
At the end of the day, Sepp Kuss only crossed the finish line in 39th place, four minutes behind the day's winner, and the 30-year-old climber admitted to weakness on team website afterwards: "We had to be in a good position for the penultimate climb from the descent, but that was hard enough for me. I just didn't have the legs," Kuss explained honestly.
"What does this mean for the rest of the week? I don't know. Today was today and now we have two sprint stages and a time trial ahead of us. It's definitely a good race to get back into the rhythm. When the race is as hard as it was today, that happens automatically. You have to work hard and suffer to stay in the group. It was a tough day."
Kuss will thus continue to build up his fitness, gaining competitive pace and working to protect Jonas Vingegaard, who keeps his aspirations for victory in the final general classification intact, despite only placing 6th in today's stage and losing some time on the road and at the finish line with the bonuses for João Almeida of UAE Team Emirates - XRG.
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- Impressive and surprising, well done. Go for it more often please.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Good choice of profile picture by the way :-)Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Bolt was an outlier, for some people it can’t exist. Funny thing is 3 generations later, a lot of amateurs reach the level the average pro had. Ok, maybe counting from today it might be 5 or 6 generations because we won’t all have access to the equipment and staff and assistance pros now need to perform.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Actually, I’ve not noticed that fans have even noticed results are provisional so as far as the sport itself goes, I wouldn’t worry too much. Obviously some riders will miss out on celebrating but then these days, they’re all paid so well that it’s quite a small price to pay. Andy Schleck certainly didn’t get to party like he was used to when he received Alberto’s trophy and titles, nevertheless, he’s in the books and I’m sure he feels like and gets treated like a tdf winner. CATCHING dopers is good for the sport, though at the moment I’d have no idea who to go looking for.Mistermaumau10-04-2025
- Someone like David Walsh, who was the point person in the Sky Team coverup? When there was money and fame in bringing down Armstrong, he went for that. Then he sold that crusader image to Sky. And then renounced them. The guy has made more money from athletes and doping without ever once competing himself, having to take drugs, or even stand for a single principle. He is no different than Novitzsky, who was pivotal in the Armstrong investigations, and helped put Marion Jones in jail. Now he is full-time in the coverup business for the UFC.
Barney10-04-2025 - Do you think that making results provisional for 10 years makes for good sport? Or in any way remotely fairer, or safer?Barney10-04-2025
- Christian Scaroni, Clément Champoussin, Harold Tejada, Simone Velasco ... Peripheral riders who have failed to make much impression so far in their carrier, suddenly starting to win everywhere, climbing with the best in weekly WT races. Aging riders years after their prime, now seen more often than none at the head of the peloton in the classics. Still, no what is talking about the Chinese candies in the roomBM10-04-2025
- It's easy to dismiss doubters. We need someone like David Walsh who dares to ask the hard question. In the mean time, I wouldn't worry too much about Tadej. Whether he dopes or not, at least, he's not a terrible person like LA Doper.
KerisVroom10-04-2025 - Pogi is an outlier. You cannot prove an outlier using the statistical data of average pros. If he releases the data, it will only cause even more suspicion. In 2020 TDF he was dropped by Roglic in the mountains. So how does he do the TT where in the flats he nearly beat Tom Dumoulin and beat everybody else on the climb by a ton. No matter what Pogi is too much of an outlier which can be proven by dataabstractengineer10-04-2025
- Sorry? Have you not noticed how many winners and others have been cancelled post event, not least from the Beijing and London Olympics? If that doesn’t qualify for practice generalisation in sporting procedure, what is, we’ve even gotten to the stage of pre-emptive barring under suspicion of possible doping. If you’re going to look at a problem like this seriously, don’t just look at what makes media headlines in the parts you pay attention to. There is probably a wiki list (very long) of athletes who were disqualified for substance irregularities post event, and each had the opportunity to their long and costly process to defend themselves, it just doesn’t make the news unless you’re already a megastar (in which case you’d be extremely stupid nowadays to risk it, but then again, many people, especially in sport, fall in or close to such a category.Mistermaumau10-04-2025